That's the power of trust actually. You don't need to analyze every corner case.

It happens in bits. You buy the phone that isn't locked up by apple from your carrier. It comes with a ton of crapware and bloatware on it, maybe some backdoors built in. All totally legal per the FTC because buried in some fine print on a 50 page clickthrough license on some setup screen they say they are allowed to do this.

Or, you buy the apple phone. Totally locked up, your phone company can't install their "user experience" enhancers (ie, to track and sell your data to marketers). And yes, before you tell me how regulated comcast and the TV companies are and how they would NEVER do this, I've got a bridge to sell you.

And yes, surveys DO show that people don't actually trust their politicians. You might think they are amazing, more power to you. But this is data backed to a large degree these days, more trust / brand value in Apple then Dem party or republican party for example. 98% of folks don't think politicians will do what's right almost always. NPR did a piece on this, trust in govt is at historic lows.

So we are seeing some substitution effects and for good reason. The policing of the internet at large is pretty horrible, so walled gardens start looking more appealing.

Again, you are arguing that people's opinions on the totality of things have anything to do with the specific issue mentioned. That's a very flawed generalization to make, as the things we are talking about have many facets and most people are not thinking about this niche one.

The specific issue is facebook complaining about apple. That's a no brainer for most users - put Apple in charge, not the idiots at the EFF (supporters of spam for years) or facebook (wouldn't trust them further than I can throw them).

What you and others fail to realize is that I PAY apple money. That at least loosely aligns their interests with mine. I've been very happy with what they've done as a result, showing up the EFF and the govt (with their stupid and toothless cookie popups and unders and privacy policies flooding my mailbox). Apple gives me actual control, and backs it with market power that makes it very dangerous to cross them to try and exploit users.

Facebook is paid by business, corporations, but NOT by their users. Just think about that for a minute. The specific issue here, facebook and eff vs apple, is easy for most users. We've already voted, instead of forcing tracking off the way they used to, apple let's users indicate what they want. They have agreed with apple, don't track. I personally wish apple would go further, and just force it and let users go into some setting to turn on the allow app to track me setting.

Same with the EFF issues about warning on bogus batteries being put into phones. Just ignore these guys.